Destination Davao: Ready, Steady, GO!!! (Part 1 of ?)

This will be a series of entries documenting my recent trip to Davao, mixing business with pleasure! ;P The Psyhological Association of the Philippines held it’s annual convention there and most of the big kids at the department went to present either their own or a department-collaboration research project. I went for the latter. It’s hitting two birds with one stone—I get to present and go somewhere I’ve never been to before. This would be the first of a series of pic spam entries, sometimes with a dash of crack—I’m not even sure how to blog this entire Davao thing and I’m afraid I will go crazy if I get too OC about it. So, without further ado, I present the first part—where me and some of the big kids prepare for Destination Davao.

Here we were at NAIA Terminal 3 waiting for our flight. ‘We’ is operationally defined as [left pic: P, A, J, S] and [right pic: P, T, A, J]. We’re acting like complete noobs in the place, taking pictures here and there—actually just practicing our photography skills and celebrating the legitimate break we had from work. Of course, in order to look credible at the slightest, we had to prepare. Or at least look prepared. Wait, P is prepared and S is, what the…reading a book?! That’s leaves me—looking cool and collected when in fact, this is the first related literature I’m reading!!!

So we arrive at Davao and we were so amused to see a welcome banner for participants of the convention. We just had to have our pictures taken so S politely asked a ‘manong/kuya’ who was passing by to take our pictures. ‘Manong/kuya’ politely obliged, and looked like she didn’t mind that she was referred by such honorific label. I could’ve sworn (and S, too, I think) the dude who looked like a ‘manong/kuya’ sounded like and could very well be a girl. Anyway, it was at this point that perhaps, some serendipitous Davao moments began. For one thing, T, P, S and I were able to hitch a ride with the shuttle bound for the venue of the conference. A was unable to join us because prior to this (when we were figuring out how to get to our lodging), he joined our other colleagues in a cab bound to our hostel and the four of us were to follow in a different cab. But then, T saw her friend who fetched one of the speakers from the airport and with some small talk and headcount, we found ourselves in the van headed for our hostel. In fairness to A, he was the first to reach the hostel since we had to make stops in two inns to drop the speakers off.

This is what our room looks like. *start sarcasm* OH-EM-GEE!!! There are beds!!! And we have a bathroom, too! *end sarcasm* This sure beats lodging at ‘Field trip from Hell’ hands down. We stayed at Bahay Alumni, operationally defined as AWESOME PLACE TO STAY when you’re in Davao. It’s practical with free breakfast at that! Amenities are complete and it’s not too fancy but just enough to get you by. I suppose the only critique I have, and maybe the others also, is how the toilet and bathroom are separated and why the latter does not have towel holders. For me, I guess I’m used to seeing the toilet and the shower together, where one can change near the toilet area immediately after shower. Also, as P had put it, the whole set-up was rather ‘effortful’ and it did took some getting used to. But it wasn’t bad, actually, it was more…challenging ; ). Funny, how the main concern was all about the toilet and bath and not the fact that we’re a mixed-gendered group in one room. Suffice to say, we were all disinhibited of whatever inhibitions we had after day one—labasan na ng mga kikay at vanity kits, and I ain’t referring to just the girls in the room. :D

After settling in, we went out to dinner at Penongs. Dude, great place! Cheap food, big serving, very tasty! We were obviously enjoying ourselves. ^___^. YUM.

This wasn’t exactly how the day ended (oh, boy, it’s sure wasn’t ; ) since we went to People’s Park afterwards. I’ll blog about that in a different entry, and until I’ve sorted which pictures to post. :P


To Be Continued.